MAUMEE, Ohio — Maumee residents will soon breathe a sigh of relief as construction on Conant Street will officially be done Friday, city officials said.
The good news came just in time for the holiday weekend, and residents WTOL 11 spoke with shared their excitement.
Brian Sniegocki has lived in Maumee for more than 30 years said the lack of orange barrels was a welcome sight.
"This was fantastic," Sniegocki said. "I've been out of town for three weeks and I came back and it was done, which is really nice."
Kelly Nehay has lived in Maumee for nearly 15 years and agreed with Sniegocki.
"Absolutely, I think they did a fabulous job," Nehay said.
While residents are happy with how Conant Street looks now, the construction time for everyone seemed to be neither easy nor simple at times.
Sara Wells, a professional hairstylist at Salon 308 on Conant Street, said the construction brought growing pains.
"It's been hard living in it, just with the traffic pattern and things like that," Wells said.
Next door at Amity Ink, Piercings by Caitlin owner Caitlin Williams shared similar sentiments. She said she's had to direct clients to use the side streets.
Williams lives just a five-minute drive from her work, but the construction would add a significant amount of time to her commute.
"Its been frustrating with the construction consistently outside my house," Williams said. "But anytime we have an issue and we talk to the construction workers. 'Hey, can you maybe move your car?' or 'Hey, the trash is coming this day this week. they've been pretty nice about it."
Nehau said that despite the headaches the construction may have caused, it was worth the end result.
"It's difficult for most of us to move on from making change," Nehay said. "But, once the time goes on, I think people will realize it was worth it for the rest of our community."
City officials said the goal was to have the main street free of road obstructions by the holiday weekend. While that is the case Sniegocki noted drivers will have to readjust to the traffic flow.
"It's just a lot better right now than it was going from four lanes to two," he said. "We added the center turn lane, which is nice."
City officials said the turn lane allows emergency vehicles and first responders to get through Maumee much faster and more safely. Mayor Richard Carr added there is still some minor work to be done on Conant Street though, such as painting lamp posts and installing new traffic lights and archways.